Thanksgiving Interfaith Service Encourages Community to Gather Virtually in Gratitude

By LILY TINOCO | Reporter

The Pacific Palisades Interfaith Clergy invited community members to a virtual Thanksgiving event on Monday evening, November 23—with a theme of “gathering as a community in gratitude.”

In previous years, attendees have congregated in-person at various locations, including Corpus Christi Church and Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine, for the service. More than 150 community members found a new way to come together due to the COVID-19 pandemic: Zoom.

“It’s a little different this year, obviously, than it’s been in the past,” Rabbi Steven Carr Reuben of Kehillat Israel Reconstructionist Congregation said at the start of the event. “We have this unique opportunity to welcome you from wherever you may be, literally in the entire world, to share this profound moment of gratitude together with all of us.”

Reuben, the official host of this year’s event, said the best message he can share with everybody in attendance is to search for the blessings in everyday life, no matter how small.

“Every single night, I take out a gratitude journal and I write three things I’m grateful for that day,” Reuben said. “Forces me to think back about that day and find the blessings within the challenges of my life … imagine if that’s how we greeted every single day, as a blessing treasure hunt.

“Where can I find that blessing? Perhaps in the extended hand of a loved one or a phone call, or in a memory, or in looking out through the window and seeing the beauty of where you live.”

Additional speakers throughout the event emphasized the challenges presented this year, but reassured attendees that there are still plenty reasons to be thankful.

Clergy from Corpus Christi Church, Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church, Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine, Community United Methodist Church of Pacific Palisades, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Palisades Lutheran Church and Saint Matthew’s Episcopal Church spoke and were in attendance.

The virtual event featured a number of performances throughout the night, including the Palisades Presbyterian Chancel Choir rendition of “The Call of Wisdom,” music director Ross Chitwood of the Palisades Community United Methodist Church, Joe and Cyndi Ramirez from the Palisades Lutheran Church, and organist and musician Haesung Park from Saint Matthew’s.

“We can be thankful for the unexpected blessings that have come our way as a result of what this year has brought us,” Reverend Grace Park from Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church said. “Unexpected blessings such as friendship, the acts of love that we’ve encountered, the gift of comfort in our loneliness, the gift of patience and also the gift of wisdom to be able to see beyond what we are in right now.

“We come from many different faith traditions … but we can all come to the table in one spirit tonight: the spirit of Thanksgiving, giving thanks for what we see in our lives.”